The controversial methods used by four scientists at the Russell Group university were revealed on Sunday by WalesOnline. The test results have been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience but attracted strong criticism from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV).

One vet working for the BUAV questioned how relevant the experiments, which have been publicly funded through the Medical Research Council, were to humans and said the same information could have been taken from testing humans.